"You Lie!"

I have been somewhat fascinated by the response to Joe Wilson and his soon to be legendary, "You lie!" outburst.

The appropriateness of his actions should be clear to anyone with even the most basic understanding of common courtesy; it was extremely classless and rude. Of course, it also fit very well in a society where people pride themselves on being classy and rude, where shows like Jackass have been big hits specifically because they show people being classless and rude, where irreverence is considered a high calling.

If anything, those things indicate even his worst detractors should hail Wilson as a hero, if nothing else for his sheer irreverence. He has advanced the cause of irreverence to Parliamentary levels. Expect to see more such interruptions now that the precedent has been set in recent times.

Even more backing up the point that the response has been wrong, he was right...the President does, in fact lie.

But the response is what fascinates me. It has been ridiculous. Let me help you out by explaining what the response should have been. Hint: it consists of one 3 letter word.

The immediate and total response to an accusation that any President lies should simply be, "And?"

Name the last President that didn't lie. No, he did...remember WMD? No, him too...remember "it depends on what the definition of 'is'is"...no, he did too, remember "Read my lips, no new taxes"? No, him too...remember Iran-Contra?

Keep going. Lets skip a few generations. Nope, now you are in Teapot Dome, keep going. Nope, now you have Jackson telling the Cherokees he loved them and was trying to save them as he sent them on the Trail of Tears, keep going...Jefferson admitted the Louisiana Purchase was a violation of the Constitution which he swore to uphold, keep going...

Get the point? Presidents lie. We the people accept it and continue to vote for people who will push our agendas instead of voting for men of integrity who will do what they believe best for the country rather than following a party political agenda (yes, I do realize that Jefferson made the purchase because he believed it best for the country).

It is pretty well understood and accepted that campaign promises is a euphemism for "things I have no chance of accomplishing and not much more intent to even try in the first place but makes you feel better about voting for me than the other guy."
Wilson's outburst has been changed from a breech of protocol into a martyr which could propel him to the White House if the Destructocrats keep pushing. Don't believe me? Who is the Vice President right now?

Joe "Read my lips: I stold this from somebody else" the plagiarizer Biden.

Wow, those censures sure are effective. Totally wrecked his career. (insert sarcasm font for previous two sentences)

Anyone who has ever used the response, "And?" knows how powerful it can be. Suddenly all assumptions that the next response is known are shot down. The person must come up with something else. For example...

Wilson: "You lie!"
Destructocrats: "And?"
Republican'ts: "Well...he lied!"
D: "And?"


Behold, the power of putting the onus back on the person making a broad, open ended statement.

"I'm hungry."
"And?"

Obama has done a lot worse things than lie. The ridiculous Cash for Clunkers*. The idea that in depressed times, negative savings aside, we need to help out people who are affluent enough TO BUY A NEW CAR is so patently ridiculous that I should not even be discussing it. Surely there are better things we could be doing?

See above comments for the home buying program.

And that is just in the financial realm.

Obama is well on his way to exceeding FDR by a wide margin in race for "worst President in US history as he does long-lasting damage to the financial system.

But lying? That is so far down the list of his problems it should not even raise an eyebrow.

So go ahead, Wilson. Make yourself look like the jerk you are with your shout while the Dems do the same with their response that exceeds the correct, "And?"








* A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.
A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.
So, the average "Cash for Clunkers" transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons / year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels of oil is about ¼ of one day's US consumption.
And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.
So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.
How good a deal was that ???

3 comments:

Unknown said...

In Wilson's defense, there is no way he could have gotten on TV without breaking in on the President's speech. Obama floods the airwaves so much, they barely have time to play the other Jackass show. Also, Wilson has apologized. Not for his statement, because he was right, but for his conduct. I believe he apologized as soon as could reasonably be expected.

On your point about Wilson bringing parlimentary[sic] procedure to a new low, the current residents of the house have already done that, particularly Pelosi.

And finally on your point about Bush and WMD's, when did he ever lie about that? If anything the fact that he did not find any is further proof he did not lie on that score. Had it been Clinton, you can be sure that real, intact, (probably stamped "US Army") WMD's would have been found whether they were there before we arrived or not.

Darth Weasel said...

Wilson does have a pretty good track record of getting noticed though.

The Parliament comment was a reference to Canada where I actually have former classmates who watch Canadian Parliament just for the shouting matches...

Riot Kitty said...

Politics just makes me ill.